MUDDY WATERS DO NOT IMPROVE THE POTENTIAL FOR GREATER PARTICIPATION IN THE SO CALLED RAC/TAG REVIEW

 CPAC and myself do have an e-mail from each of two Woolwich councillors advising of a review of the Terms of Reference of RAC and TAG. Bluntly put a review solely of the Terms of Reference of RAC and TAG is grossly inadequate. Sandy Shantz. Mark Bauman, Chemtura and the Ministry of Environment fashioned RAC and TAG to be a toothless, polite and respectful greenwashing tool. On that basis it is my opinion that TAG in particular are an unbridled success. RAC are just a plain bunch of cheerleaders along for the ride.

Now don't get me wrong  TAG individually have some strong talent involved. Strong talent who will only be tolerated as long as they don't over reach. Over reach is defined as being critical and non-supportive of Lanxess, GHD, MECP, Woolwich Township etc. After all, first and foremost this is a club of right thinkers. Everybody has to be on board and supportive of everybody else otherwise there would be chaos and uncertainty for the public. Presenting a united front is far more important than actually remediating anything.

Members have come and gone constantly. Bill Barr, Joe Kelly, Pat McLean, Katharina Richter, Dustin Martin  to name a few. New folks with little to no knowledge of the history of the site are brought on regularly. It does help to keep things muddy.

Further mud for me surrounds who is being invited to the party. How many citizens know that one TAG member is neither a Canadian citizen nor a resident of Woolwich Township? So much for local, citizen input. Will the review be stacked as usual, heavily in favour of Lanxess and their interests? Who will be the moderator or Chair? Dear God not Sandy! When and where will this review be? Will the removal/discontinuance of RAC/TAG be up for discussion or was that statement by councillor Nathan Cadeau inaccurate? Most importantly will the issue of decades of reduced shallow aquifer (i.e. Upper Aquifer) groundwater pumping be at least somewhat settled prior to the review? This is, pardon the pun. a watershed issue. If as certainly appears obvious right now, TAG have utterly failed to see and find the gross reductions in on-site shallow aquifer pumping to hydraulically reduce the quantity of heavily contaminated groundwater discharging to the Canagagigue Creek; then clearly their efficacy is beyond salvage.  Until or unless the public are clearly and honestly advised that somehow TAG were addressing this issue and doing it publicly, then they are fit only for the trash heap. Even without their failures on that front they have enough other failures including not advising and rallying the public to stand up for the cleanup of the Canagagigue Creek as Lanxess have publicly stated that their vaunted Risk Assessment says that it isn't necessary. Absolutely contemptible and if TAG don't say so publicly then they too are contemptible.